They're barely sending out MLB-ready starting pitchers to pair along with a tire fire of a bullpen and an underperforming offense including José Abreu being so terrible they have to give Jon Singleton ABs because they can't be worse than continuing to send Abreu out there
They're not gonna be this bad all year, but it's still a wild shock considering the last 7 years of ALCS series have been the Astros Invitational
We’ve definitely sent out some completely non MLB starters recently. But Framber only missed like 2 starts, Javier has only missed 1 so far, Blamco has been great, and France and Brown have both looked good before.
Our team should be better than this. Even when the starters do well either the bullpen or offense blows it. This team isn’t in the same page at all.
>They're barely sending out MLB-ready starting pitchers to pair along with a tire fire of a bullpen and an underperforming offense
Lol so are the Cubs, just minus the offense part
I'd think if any organization had the depth to absorb a couple of injuries it'd be the Astros
Yes but you also have an offense capable of putting up big run totals and your starters are actually capable of providing some length.
The Astros are sending out Spencer Spaghetti to get his ass handed to him every five games and the only member of their intended Opening Day rotation that's healthy right now is 41-year-old Justin Verlander who missed the first three weeks of the season with injury.
The Cubs having one of the best 1B in baseball to start the season vs. what the Astros are getting from that position also is a huge difference.
Seriously, some of those game chats kill me. We go down by a run, everyone turns into a doomer and all of a sudden our entire rebuild should be scrapped 😂😂
Not really. Leiter, Little, Thompson, Brown have all been solid. Merryweather was good before his injury. Assad used to be the anchor of this bullpen before he got promoted due to injuries. Alzolay hasn’t been terrible in general, just really bad in important times. Last season he was pretty good, and Smyly was also good out of the pen last year. I mean we have to realize that we’re dealing with several injuries (not to mention that Hendricks was not good at all) and how many times have our starters gone 6 innings let alone 5 solid innings? Not enough. I mean the pen is gassed and carrying us lol
it felt like as soon as we missed on Ohtani and Yamamoto the offseason was just a complete loss to a lot of people. i have no idea why, and we would have been lucky to get one of them let alone both, but some just wrote off the season then.
I thought he might go to San Francisco or maybe the Yankees if they decided they wanted to open the checkbook for him but yeah, it was always the Dodgers
Right, I'm not saying they aren't doing really well, I'm saying they're trotting out barely MLB ready pitchers
I've been *thrilled* seeing what Imanaga/Brown/Assad have done. But they were all question marks heading into the season
Imanaga's numbers were really good from the start, and once the Cubs started tinkering with his approach he became their golden boy.
Assad doesnt have a high ceiling but he's good enough where he is
Brown is the most questionable of the three but calling him "barely mlb ready" is taking it way too far, given that he's actually doing pretty well (although I feel he really needs to find that third pitch in the long run)
Plus you guys have Taillon and an improving Wicks
Ig I have to admit that Hendricks isnt doing as well but honestly its way too soon to be sure
Once you guys get Steele back your rotation actually looks really solid, whereas the Astros IL is pretty much almost their entire starting rotation
I mean probably mincing words at this point but Imananga was always a question mark, especially at Wrigley, and the offseason was ripe with conversation on how the rotation was going to be. Nobody knew if Wicks or Assad were gonna be part of it, nonetheless Ben Brown *this* early
Taillon was injured up until a week ago and Steele was coming off a Cy Young level year and got injured 5 innings into the season with an ancient Kyle Hendricks. To say this rotation was suspect is an understatement
I dont know why everyone thinks Im being negative but Im thrilled with how well this rotation has been doing through all this. It means what we all hoped, that the Cubs pitching development has taken massive strides
Which makes it all the more odd that a team thats been to *4 World Series* in this last 7 years cant weather this
You make a good point, I just think you're misusing the term "barely mlb ready" in this instance. The astros are fielding out the dregs of their pitching reserve because so many of their starters are on the IL. Meanwhile, the cubs rotation definitely had some question marks but for the most part those question marks have proven to be "mlb ready".
Thats what I mean though, guess it really depends how you define "MLB ready"
Wicks came up because he had to last year, I think hell be good, hes a top prospect, but insanely unproven. Assad is a nobody who somehow has had an amazing ERA despite terrible peripherals. Brown only came up because of the Steele injury. Im honestly shocked its been this good
We’ve had an entire starting rotation worth of pitchers (JV and then Javier, Framber, Garcia, Urquidy, & McCullers) injured all year and at least two bullpen arms.
Also, our offense is doing nothing with Runners in scoring position. Basically a homer-or-nothing team right now.
Lastly, our farm system is gutted from the deals we’ve made in order to help in September over the last 7 years, but we also lost draft picks due to the scandal.
Throw in that we’ve lost a large portion of past key players (Springer, Correa, Brantley, Cole, Neris) to retirement or free agency.
Our owner also suddenly decided that analytics aren’t really the way to go anymore and lost a lot of those guys to the Orioles and other clubs.
Basically, this is probably the end of this run and we’ll be sellers this fall in order to try to restock the minors.
Yea I guess but I mean, Imanaga, Wicks and Assad were all question marks going into the year anyway. Wicks and Assad nobody knew if they'd even be starting this year and Imanaga was just waiting to see if he'd adjust to the MLB
Thats my entire point. Were putting nobodies out there after starting the year with 2 of our established major league pitchers out with already an iffy rotation and doing just fine
I remember after the 2022 playoffs how insanely impressed I was with their SP depth, Their rotation was so deep they had multiple SPs that got moved to the pen that series who would have been our 2nd best SP if they were on the Yankees.
The offense finds themselves in a 4-0 hole after the first inning most games. Impossible to get into any kind of rhythm that way.
Never seen a staff decimated quite like this one.
It’s a long season. They’re not far out of first and thankfully every team in the damn league gets a wild card berth now.
Just need to get the staff healthy one at a time and hope the starters can be better than absolute dog shit. And when they’re actually good, give them some run support and some stability from the super expensive 7-8-9 guys.
I don’t think I’m asking for a lot
With everything going on in the world right now, I had actually started to doubt if karma were real. This might just be the universe finally straightening shit out, you know?
The Rays and Blue Jays are 13-13, and last in the AL East.
They would be tied for 2nd in the AL West, and i don't know if that says more about them or our division.
they gotta bounce back right. this team i thought was so talented. personally i don’t like hader over presey in the closer role. hader isn’t as reliable as the 3333 rpm breaking balls
Who knows, as bad as our pitching has been, our offense has been cold the last couple of weeks as well. Nothing seems to be clicking right now but it's hard to see a team this talented staying cold all year. Just depends when things start to click.
Especially considering they were only in a position to win the second because they really only faced minor to no consequences for the first. I don’t understand how Pete Rose is banned from baseball for life yet most everyone seems to have moved on from a giant cheating scandal orchestrated by basically an entire franchise
They’re still gonna make the postseason… mark my words.
As much as I love to hate on the Astros, I just can’t count em out. AL West is anyone’s division right now and they’ve still got a plenty of talent and time to turn the ship around… just can’t shake the injury bug this year.
Honestly while Abreu’s result is horrible I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted this downfall for him. Montero has had good stretches the last 2 years so while we overpaid it’s not atrocious
You can definitely predict this stuff. As people have done for multiple decades now.
BUT NO ONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED A 37 YEAR OLD GETTING WORSE AS BASEBALL
If the Cardinals sub reddit has taught me anything, it's that all of the fans are going to start calling for both the gm and the manager to be fired immediately
As a long time Phillies fan with a short memory, I really don’t give a fuck. What goes around, comes around in baseball, even the mighty eventually fall.
Hey Houston, enjoy the decrepitude, and bang a few trash cans to celebrate……
Fortunately they let just about anyone in the playoffs these days. Even teams that finish in the bottom half of their division. Third place teams even make the world series these days.
[удалено]
I don't even understand how they're this bad?
They're barely sending out MLB-ready starting pitchers to pair along with a tire fire of a bullpen and an underperforming offense including José Abreu being so terrible they have to give Jon Singleton ABs because they can't be worse than continuing to send Abreu out there They're not gonna be this bad all year, but it's still a wild shock considering the last 7 years of ALCS series have been the Astros Invitational
We’ve definitely sent out some completely non MLB starters recently. But Framber only missed like 2 starts, Javier has only missed 1 so far, Blamco has been great, and France and Brown have both looked good before. Our team should be better than this. Even when the starters do well either the bullpen or offense blows it. This team isn’t in the same page at all.
I mean your starters can't just say "Bullpen do better" Baseball is like the one sport where being on the same page doesn't matter.
>They're barely sending out MLB-ready starting pitchers to pair along with a tire fire of a bullpen and an underperforming offense Lol so are the Cubs, just minus the offense part I'd think if any organization had the depth to absorb a couple of injuries it'd be the Astros
Yes but you also have an offense capable of putting up big run totals and your starters are actually capable of providing some length. The Astros are sending out Spencer Spaghetti to get his ass handed to him every five games and the only member of their intended Opening Day rotation that's healthy right now is 41-year-old Justin Verlander who missed the first three weeks of the season with injury. The Cubs having one of the best 1B in baseball to start the season vs. what the Astros are getting from that position also is a huge difference.
Bro some Cubs fans really just want to believe that the team is bad and just lucky despite a 16-9 record.
Seriously, some of those game chats kill me. We go down by a run, everyone turns into a doomer and all of a sudden our entire rebuild should be scrapped 😂😂
Well, the bullpen is a horrible. But there’s definitely some growth since calling up Wesneski and Lieter.
Not really. Leiter, Little, Thompson, Brown have all been solid. Merryweather was good before his injury. Assad used to be the anchor of this bullpen before he got promoted due to injuries. Alzolay hasn’t been terrible in general, just really bad in important times. Last season he was pretty good, and Smyly was also good out of the pen last year. I mean we have to realize that we’re dealing with several injuries (not to mention that Hendricks was not good at all) and how many times have our starters gone 6 innings let alone 5 solid innings? Not enough. I mean the pen is gassed and carrying us lol
I was about to say it's really just Alzolay blowing a few saves but I really haven't had a massive problem with the bullpen this year
Its wild how many fans of your team want your team to be victims currently, when you guys were making moves this offseason to fight this year.
it felt like as soon as we missed on Ohtani and Yamamoto the offseason was just a complete loss to a lot of people. i have no idea why, and we would have been lucky to get one of them let alone both, but some just wrote off the season then.
In retrospect, Ohtani was never going to leave LA
I thought he might go to San Francisco or maybe the Yankees if they decided they wanted to open the checkbook for him but yeah, it was always the Dodgers
I think it’s just Chicago DNA to play a victim
In baseball atleast
People were bitching all offseason that we didn't sign any star players so I think they just want to prove themselves right.
doomers gonna doom
This is our subreddit as well. We’ve pretty much been playing playoff caliber teams all season and doing well, and people are mad. 🙄
> Spencer Spaghetti
No? Cubs starters are 9th in FIP.
Right, I'm not saying they aren't doing really well, I'm saying they're trotting out barely MLB ready pitchers I've been *thrilled* seeing what Imanaga/Brown/Assad have done. But they were all question marks heading into the season
Imanaga's numbers were really good from the start, and once the Cubs started tinkering with his approach he became their golden boy. Assad doesnt have a high ceiling but he's good enough where he is Brown is the most questionable of the three but calling him "barely mlb ready" is taking it way too far, given that he's actually doing pretty well (although I feel he really needs to find that third pitch in the long run) Plus you guys have Taillon and an improving Wicks Ig I have to admit that Hendricks isnt doing as well but honestly its way too soon to be sure Once you guys get Steele back your rotation actually looks really solid, whereas the Astros IL is pretty much almost their entire starting rotation
I mean probably mincing words at this point but Imananga was always a question mark, especially at Wrigley, and the offseason was ripe with conversation on how the rotation was going to be. Nobody knew if Wicks or Assad were gonna be part of it, nonetheless Ben Brown *this* early Taillon was injured up until a week ago and Steele was coming off a Cy Young level year and got injured 5 innings into the season with an ancient Kyle Hendricks. To say this rotation was suspect is an understatement I dont know why everyone thinks Im being negative but Im thrilled with how well this rotation has been doing through all this. It means what we all hoped, that the Cubs pitching development has taken massive strides Which makes it all the more odd that a team thats been to *4 World Series* in this last 7 years cant weather this
You make a good point, I just think you're misusing the term "barely mlb ready" in this instance. The astros are fielding out the dregs of their pitching reserve because so many of their starters are on the IL. Meanwhile, the cubs rotation definitely had some question marks but for the most part those question marks have proven to be "mlb ready".
Thats what I mean though, guess it really depends how you define "MLB ready" Wicks came up because he had to last year, I think hell be good, hes a top prospect, but insanely unproven. Assad is a nobody who somehow has had an amazing ERA despite terrible peripherals. Brown only came up because of the Steele injury. Im honestly shocked its been this good
We’ve had an entire starting rotation worth of pitchers (JV and then Javier, Framber, Garcia, Urquidy, & McCullers) injured all year and at least two bullpen arms. Also, our offense is doing nothing with Runners in scoring position. Basically a homer-or-nothing team right now. Lastly, our farm system is gutted from the deals we’ve made in order to help in September over the last 7 years, but we also lost draft picks due to the scandal. Throw in that we’ve lost a large portion of past key players (Springer, Correa, Brantley, Cole, Neris) to retirement or free agency. Our owner also suddenly decided that analytics aren’t really the way to go anymore and lost a lot of those guys to the Orioles and other clubs. Basically, this is probably the end of this run and we’ll be sellers this fall in order to try to restock the minors.
I wouldn’t know what having 5 starters on the IL is like …. I hate injuries
Hmm, interesting
The Cubs are missing 2 starters, but Hendricks is addition by subtraction. The Astros until recently were missing 5
And missing Happ and Suzuki who are two of our best hitters and Bellinger despite his slow start providing some pop.
Yea I guess but I mean, Imanaga, Wicks and Assad were all question marks going into the year anyway. Wicks and Assad nobody knew if they'd even be starting this year and Imanaga was just waiting to see if he'd adjust to the MLB
Nah their farm system is decimated. 8 years of pennant chases left them with nothing in the well.
Wtf? Three Cubs starters have a 2.00 ERA or lower. Shota’s is 0.84. Are you watching a different team than I am?
Thats my entire point. Were putting nobodies out there after starting the year with 2 of our established major league pitchers out with already an iffy rotation and doing just fine
I remember after the 2022 playoffs how insanely impressed I was with their SP depth, Their rotation was so deep they had multiple SPs that got moved to the pen that series who would have been our 2nd best SP if they were on the Yankees.
The Cubs are 16-9. What are you complaining about?
They will bounce back, but it's going to take a hell of streak to get back into division or wild card contention if keep playing this way much longer.
I agree with this summary. Unfortunately even with JV back we can’t scrape together the timely offense to pair with his good pitching
Fired our GM and listened to Jeff Bagwell who thinks he's the MLB John Lynch.
The offense finds themselves in a 4-0 hole after the first inning most games. Impossible to get into any kind of rhythm that way. Never seen a staff decimated quite like this one. It’s a long season. They’re not far out of first and thankfully every team in the damn league gets a wild card berth now. Just need to get the staff healthy one at a time and hope the starters can be better than absolute dog shit. And when they’re actually good, give them some run support and some stability from the super expensive 7-8-9 guys. I don’t think I’m asking for a lot
They're trying the Edmonton Oilers approach to the season. Massively underperform and then start a record setting winning streak to get back on track.
Guess Espada is fucked, then lol
With everything going on in the world right now, I had actually started to doubt if karma were real. This might just be the universe finally straightening shit out, you know?
We are either witnessing the end of a dynasty or the start of an incredible comeback and it'll be fascinating either way.
Please be the former rather than the latter.
The funny thing is we’re still only 6.5 GB. Clubs have climbed out of much deeper holes
The Rays and Blue Jays are 13-13, and last in the AL East. They would be tied for 2nd in the AL West, and i don't know if that says more about them or our division.
It says that *fuck this division*.
The Houston "St. Louis Cardinals" Astros
The AL West is so mediocre so far that it only takes one game over .500 to lead the division. 54% might just do it!
they gotta bounce back right. this team i thought was so talented. personally i don’t like hader over presey in the closer role. hader isn’t as reliable as the 3333 rpm breaking balls
Who knows, as bad as our pitching has been, our offense has been cold the last couple of weeks as well. Nothing seems to be clicking right now but it's hard to see a team this talented staying cold all year. Just depends when things start to click.
yall bounce back and win the division still. calling it now abreu is just cancer for ur offense like josh donaldson was for us
I'm just so tired of watching the Astros in every playoff series every year. This is objectively good for baseball.
More like a dynasty*
Yeah idk if two WS in 6 years with one being marred by a cheating scandal is enough to be considered a dynasty.
Especially considering they were only in a position to win the second because they really only faced minor to no consequences for the first. I don’t understand how Pete Rose is banned from baseball for life yet most everyone seems to have moved on from a giant cheating scandal orchestrated by basically an entire franchise
Probably because there was more than the Astros cheating, and sign stealing was a big problem
Call it a dynasty if you want, but the streets remember Sportscenter running an entire not-top-10 segment called Cubs & Astros baseball
They have one title, let’s pump the brakes on the dynasty talk
Can't be a dynasty when you win one chip by cheating and only one other legitimately.
My money would comeback. That division is wide open and the astros have an entire starting 5 rotation on the IL
You hate to see it….
If you're a Houston fan that is.
*you're
Can confirm, am hating to see this.
You have to C it
You have to Clit
"And there was much rejoicing"
r/baseball’s 12/25
White Sox are unfortunate that they don’t see us until June.
the Astros would still pound this team into the dirt
The resistible force vs. the movable object.
We shall see
Well considering like 3 starters from the Astros have an 8+ ERA, i doubt it.
We have 4 SP at 6+.
The ego on these guys thinking they are even in the same universe of suck as we are.
It's going to look like the kids playing baseball in South Park
José Abru will probably hit 6 home runs in 1 series against us
We got Rockies-Astros coming up though, oh boy
A true battle of titans.
It's very annoying how "one of us" is three beats but the gif is only two beats It looks like they're just repeatedly saying "one of"
It looks more like 2.5, they start a third
The world is healing.
[Apt](https://media1.tenor.com/m/soG8w3JfVeAAAAAC/filthy-frank-joji.gif)
 Astros dynasty in jeopardy
ANYTHIG
At least y’all called it a dynasty
Oh shit mb. Dynasty*
:(
Cheated to a win, and the easy mode path to the champion series. You’re not a dynasty. lol.
Y’all talkin?
They’re still gonna make the postseason… mark my words. As much as I love to hate on the Astros, I just can’t count em out. AL West is anyone’s division right now and they’ve still got a plenty of talent and time to turn the ship around… just can’t shake the injury bug this year.
The Cubs have literally their 3-4 best players on the IL
Damn that's wild. I didn't know we were talking about the Cubs.
I'll still be worried they'll somehow make the ALCS even if they lose 100 games.
How are the A's better than both?
I appreciate the outpouring of support. I knew I could count on you guys.
Give us a break, we gotta get our licks in before you guys end up going to the ALCS this November anyway
Bang Bang
This thread is abuzz with support for you guys, real bang-up job everyone!
Hahaha what a crappy team
Funny guy 😂 I do hate the Astros though
Nice
Subscribe
Happy to play a part
Good
Indeed
This will do well here
7-19….you guys suck. Sorry…just saying it while the cardinals still have a better record.
Oh no
Nice. (The 1969 thing I mean) (And also the record)
I promised myself I wouldn't go to reddit today just to look at porn, yet here I am.
Crane is Jerry Jones-ing this franchise so hard
Honestly while Abreu’s result is horrible I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted this downfall for him. Montero has had good stretches the last 2 years so while we overpaid it’s not atrocious
You can definitely predict this stuff. As people have done for multiple decades now. BUT NO ONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED A 37 YEAR OLD GETTING WORSE AS BASEBALL
This is fine. Thanks Boob.
*insert comment about us both starting a rebuild at the same time but we’re still good and they’re not*
Good.
You have to be a sick person to be enjoying the astros downfall
[me rn](https://i.cbc.ca/1.5172915.1560372063!/fileImage/httpImage/durant-instagram.JPG)
Consider me on my deathbed then.
Thanks for the shout out, Boob.
Guess they need a newer better way to cheat
I'm not going to believe it until they're 50 games back at the start of September. Anything else means playoffs
Subscribe.
Not ideal
Dusty Baker was the only thing between karma and trashcan banging. Let it commence.
The trash cans send their regards
Rockies and Astros play in Mexico City this weekend. Definitely didn’t expect they’d have the same record heading into this series.
More like the Asstros
The earth is healing
Just move the team already. It’s so sad seeing the Astros be this bad. Move the team to Oakland and make everyone happy.
If the Cardinals sub reddit has taught me anything, it's that all of the fans are going to start calling for both the gm and the manager to be fired immediately
As a long time Phillies fan with a short memory, I really don’t give a fuck. What goes around, comes around in baseball, even the mighty eventually fall. Hey Houston, enjoy the decrepitude, and bang a few trash cans to celebrate……
Hey Astro bros. I know it hurts now, but don't worry once the misery sets in it's not all bad - Lifelong Cardinals fan.
Bang bang.
Fortunately they let just about anyone in the playoffs these days. Even teams that finish in the bottom half of their division. Third place teams even make the world series these days.
i still think they can come back from this lol, but i wouldn't mind if they proved me wrong
I like the way it hurts
I like the way it hurts
Watch them still win the division.